Social Studies

Our textbook for social studies is Journey Across Time: The Early Ages. We start the year by studying Japan's history and geography. We then move to Mesopotamia, followed by Ancient Egypt. From Egypt, we head to Greece with a few quick stops in between (India, Africa, and China). After Greece, we go to Rome. We finally end the year in Europe.

The backdrop for our discussions about the large arc of history is the amazing Gapminder.org. Gapminder has been a great resource for understanding how much geography, technology, agriculture, war, and disease factor into historical change. Hans Rosling's video, 200 Countries in 200 Years, provides a quick and stunning introduction to the kinds of ideas that we are investigating.